


That coffee in Morocco

by dramamine_qt



Category: Keeping Up With The Joneses (2016)
Genre: Jeff's crush on Tim is just really cute, M/M, Maybe Tim had a crush on Jeff too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 17:04:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18503278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dramamine_qt/pseuds/dramamine_qt
Summary: Jim's thoughts about Jeff.





	That coffee in Morocco

Since the start, Tim had noticed that Jeff was a sensible man. When his glass sculpture had been reciprocated with anti-stress balls with the easiness of someone who was used to express kindness and good intentions, Tim had realized that Jeff was the kind of man he never could be: delicate, understanding, emotional. Not that he didn’t have any of these characteristics, but he would never be able to express them as freely as Jeff did. That bothered him in a way that he couldn’t explain.

When he had chosen the Japanese snake restaurant, Tim didn’t want to just get Jeff drunk and make him betray his friends. Tim could have done it anywhere. What Tim really had wanted was to destabilize him, see him uncomfortable and figure out how it would be to compel him to be someone he wasn’t so Tim could put Jeff in the same position he had been since they had met each other.

But no. Jeff was who he was. Even drunk and poisoned, Jeff had been sensible enough to notice that Tim wasn’t alright. Even knowing just his secret identity persona, Jeff had been able to look at Tim and see through him. Inside him. More than Natalie had done in their ten years of marriage.

When Jeff had invited him to skydive, Tim couldn’t say no. The beginning of friendship was inevitable.

Tim’s interactions with his neighbors and the great failure that the mission was being made him realize how needy and unhappy he was. Tim just became aware of his need for connection when Jeff offered it to him. For the first time in his life, Tim didn’t know what to do when things took an unexpected turn. There wasn’t any protocol in his field of work to tell him how to handle those new emotional conflicts.

So he dove in this mission, wishing that Jeff and Karen weren’t dumb enough to be invading his house and getting involved where they could get hurt. Tim would do whatever he had to do to keep Jeff’s kindness and innocence, the way he had lost himself a long time ago. A world of murder and quarreling was no place for Jeff. Tim would hate himself if he ended up corrupting him. He saw in Jeff the good thing he had lost in the course of his own life.

The way Jeff would look at him wasn’t helpful at all. A gaze that was full of admiration and interest. And if Jeff could easily read other people, he was an open book himself. Tim saw in him the exact moment in which his heart had broken when he knew that everything was fake. Saw his frustration. Saw fear. But never anger or resentment. The ease with which he found forgiveness in Jeff's eyes made his heart beat strangely. Being sincere and receiving sincerity in return was as alien to him as having a friend. Tim felt as if he had everything now.

But that soon he would lose if he didn’t save those two from the hands of Scorpio. One more reason to hate this job, one more reason to want to retire and ... and what? Natalie would never give up the profession, everyone knew she didn’t make sacrifices on behalf of others and he was no exception to this rule. They would separate. He would have to live a life without adventures, without being forced to carry weapons hidden in his body, without having to change his house and identity every six months. Tim sighed. It had been so long since he wasn’t just himself that he was beginning to forget who he was at the beginning of everything. This decision might be the worst he had ever done in his life, but if it gave him the sense of hope he thought he had lost, then it must be the right thing to do.

A year after the end of this mission, Tim found himself once again in Morocco, in a completely different life. The salary and accommodations of a tourism columnist were quite distinct from those of a secret agent, but the experience made it worthwhile. Walking the streets of the city with no other responsibility than exploring its possibilities was like breathing after drowning. Writing about it later was as challenging and exciting as writing a report right after a mission. Tim decided that his purpose on earth was to be a writer and not to kill people, even if he was very good at it.

He sat at a table in the cafe he used to go with Natalie. He admitted that he still missed their relationship and that memories could hurt a little depending on his state of mind in the day. But it was a past that Tim felt more nostalgic than grief, and that, he thought, was a good thing.

Although he was no longer a spy, it was impossible for him to turn off some of his acquired skills throughout his career. With ultra senses, Tim watched everything and everyone around him with the attention and precision worthy of a paranoid person, someone who expected to be attacked or followed at any moment. He could use that in his favor most of the time, but sitting alone there that day, Tim had the impression of being fooled by his senses.

He had heard Jeff's voice.

It was not impossible to find someone with a perfect American accent in Morocco at that time of year, but someone who spoke with that level of patience and prolix was too much. There wasn’t anyone like Jeff in the world. It could only be him.

Tim looked around, searching. It felt stupid to expect to see him there, so far from home, so close. He felt even more stupid because his heart was racing, because he had to dry his suddenly sweaty hands in his pants and because he was visibly anxious to find that familiar face.

And there he was. Arguing with a vendor of fabrics who didn’t know a word in English. Tim smiled.

He reached over to wrap his arm around Tim’s shoulders and translate to the salesman what Jeff had been saying for the last five minutes, casually, trying not to show his nervousness. Tim felt Jeff's body get tense, relax, and tense up again. He didn’t look at him yet. He finished the transaction of the fabrics, paid and only then turned to face him in the eyes.

"I can’t believe you're here!" Jeff said, smiling, flashing his blue eyes, genuinely surprised and happy to see him. And then the hug. Tim wasn’t surprised by the attitude, there was nothing more Jeff than the expression of affection, but he felt himself blush the same way. Jeff, again, in less than ten minutes of the meeting, had Tim question himself.

They sat together in the cafe, one memory replacing another with tremendous ease. When asked about his wife, Jeff smiled uncomfortably and began to play with the napkin holder while telling him that they had divorced. Worse, Natalie had recruited Karen to train and act as a spy for the agency. Tim should have expected it, from the beginning Natalie praised Karen’s insight and he even admitted that she had plenty of potentials.

"What about the kids?" He asked curiously, wanting to know everything that was going on in Jeff's life.

He learned that they were at his grandmother's house for the summer vacation, but that Jeff was taking care of them full time now that his wife had no fixed address. When Jeff said he didn’t mind this arrangement, Tim believed, Jeff was a man whose ambitions were not in his social position or how much money he received, but in the difference he could make in the world through people. Tim smiled and tried not to judge him unintentionally. He did not want Jeff to feel inferior because of his choices. Tim already thought about having children and being a family man one day, but time passed and he began to find that possibility improbable. Even now, after retirement, this seemed a distant reality.

Tim, in his turn, told Jeff about the places he had been and the things he’d done. He tried to speak in a few details as possible remembering well how uncomfortable he could make others when he talked about his experiences and didn’t want to sound like he was bragging. But Jeff was different from the one Tim knew a year ago. Jeff seemed more sure of himself, interested in learning new things and (wow) wanting to know what Tim was talking about. And instead of trying to make his own happenings seem to be bigger than they were, Jeff just gave in to the conversation and that's how Tim learned Jeff and his family were paid good money for their collaboration in breaking up the drug trafficking and Scorpio’s terrorism scheme.  It was because of Tim and Natalie that Jeff had chosen to spend part of this money to get to know Morocco.

The conversation went for hours and ended with the promise of meeting each other again later on the same day. Jeff invited Tim to dinner with the excuse that he didn’t know any good restaurant in the region yet. But Tim knew better than this. Jeff was nervous, looking around searching for words, swallowing dry in a way that told him that it was important. It was funny to see him so embarrassed.

It was interesting that Jeff was the one to give the first step. Tim just needed to figure out if the guy wanted just friendship, like before, or something more. Tim made himself this question and decided that he wanted to have everything Jeff was willing to give him.

He felt lonely. But even then, he noticed that he didn’t look for someone to fill the emptiness, but someone with who he could connect, get involved differently. He wanted someone who could see who he was and not just what he turned out to be. And Tim liked Jeff. The photo they had taken together was still in his wallet.

Jeff smiled victoriously when Tim claimed to know the perfect place. The farewell hug was long enough to answer Tim’s question about Jeff’s real interest in all of this.

That moment there with Jeff seemed as crucial as the day he had given up his espionage career. Tim had no idea what would come later, it could be the worst decision he had ever made, but he would do it anyway, because in any of his million near-death experiences before he had felt so alive.

“See you later!”, he heard Jeff say, smiling. And it sounded like a promise.

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
